Parenthood
by justanoutlaw
Summary: Robin wasn't sure he wanted to be a father...until he met Regina.


**This is Dark!OQ after they start their new beginning.**

Robin hadn't thought that he wanted children. He understood that in the other version of him was a loving, devoted father to two beautiful children and that was honestly a shock to hear. When Regina had gone to make sure that Roland was well looked after, though, Robin found himself hoping that maybe he wasn't. Maybe the two of them would have a chance to be parents.

Alas, Roland was fine. He had been adopted by two amazing mothers who loved and cared for him with everything they had. Tearing him from that, to drag him to a man that looked like his daddy-yet wasn't-would just be confusing.

That night, for the first time since they had started their new relationship, Robin brought up children.

"I want a baby," he told her long after she had blown out the candle and they had settled under the sheets.

There was a heavy silence that filled the room. "I can't have children."

"What?"

"I took an infertility potion when I was younger." She cleared her throat. "I thought it was the one way to protect any child I had from my mother."

"Oh." He frowned. "Well…we could always adopt."

"I did adopt. I had Henry."

"Are you saying you don't want more children?"

She was glad it was dark so he couldn't see her vulnerability. "I'm saying that I always pictured having more than one child…I just think it'd have to be a special circumstance. Robin, I've just had to say goodbye to my son and find out the child that I once considered my own being raised by someone else. I know I'll see Henry again someday, but it's not the same. I just need some time."

And that's what he gave her. They were happy together. They stole from the rich and gave to the poor, they had sex in every room of her palace. His want for a child didn't disappear, but he knew it would happen one day.

It was after a visit with Henry that she brought up the possibility of having another. Little did Robin know, but Henry had given he his blessing, telling her that it wasn't replacing him. It was simply a second child. She told Robin that she wanted to talk about it again, to maybe start building that nursery.

However, like most things in Regina's life, things didn't go according to plan.

She awoke to the sounds of crying. They were faint, but very much real. Shaking Robin awake, they headed down to the steps of the palace and found a Moses basket there. Inside was a tiny baby, wailing and squirming. She bent down and picked it up while Robin read the note attached. A young woman in the village, one they had helped not long ago had just given birth and couldn't provide for her son. She wanted them to care for him. After all, they had been so kind and selfless that day. What better parents could she ask for, for her child?

"He's perfect," Regina whispered, stroking his chubby cheek.

Her heart had cracked open for this child, just as it had the moment she first held Henry. Seeing this child, along with Henry's blessing, made her know that it was okay to become a mother again. It was okay to love again. She was a mother to two amazing boys, one she shared with two other mothers. In that situation, she wouldn't have it any other way. Here, this child is all hers. Well, hers and Robin's, but she knows things will be different. Oh, how she can't wait for this baby to meet his big brother, along with her other half.

When Robin held the child, he felt something inside of him that he never had before. For so much of his life, he could never see himself as a father. For so long, he had only thought about himself, then Regina. Suddenly, there was this child in his arms, a child that needed him and would depend on him, unwillingly. He knew that he couldn't let him down. When Regina said that she could never get pregnant, he wondered if he could ever love a child that didn't share his blood and yet, now he feels this protection…this love.

This was his son and no one could take that from him.

"He needs a name," Regina said. "I honestly hadn't expected that we'd get to name a child."

"There was a knight I came across in my journeys, he helped me out more than he probably should've considering what I was like back then." Robin looked up at her and gave her a soft smile. "His name was Thaddeus."

"Thaddeus," Regina repeated before smiling herself. "I like that. Prince Thaddeus, of the Enchanted Forest."


End file.
